Dawn started creeping into the navy blue of the night sky. AJ was still awake, the pain in his hand screaming. Cold and the lack of painkillers making him gasp for every breath. AJ had known pain in his short life, and plenty off it. But this was something else. This pain came from the inside as well as the outside. Tears still flowed steadily from his eyes, though he was hardly aware of them. Thoughts of suicide and death kept swirling through his mind.
Time to get up though. As he raised himself up to his elbow, a wave of dizziness washed over him. The burning in his stomach, he realized, was matching the pain in his hand, throb for agonizing throb. Starvation or excessive pain? Anyone wanna place bets on which was gonna win the race to do me in?
He crawled out of the overturned Buick, his tiny port in the storm. He had to get to work; he had to try and please Roy so that he would pay him at least a little. Hopefully enough for some bread and some painkillers. AJ realized all too well that what he really needed was a doctor. But he had no money, for one. And if he tried to take even ten minutes of work Roy would either fire him, or refuse to pay him for another week. For another fleeting moment the thought of suicide slid through his mind. How peaceful it would be, no pain, no hunger, no rejection and no loneliness.
It was only when AJ finally managed to get to his feet outside the wrecked Buick that he noticed the dark figure standing at the end of the path. The man stood stock still, his eyes locked on their target. Fear rushed through AJ, completely replacing pain as the foremost thought on his mind. Oh God … Oh God … Oh God … please … no more. No more. Please God, good God, merciful God … please help me. Save me … please no more …
The figure at the end of the path did not move. AJ’s mind raced, but he could come up with no escapes. He thought about running, but he knew in his state he would probably not get a hundred feet before the dark man ran him down. Something about the way he stood there made AJ think of a cat. That thought caused a spark in his mind. Something about this man seemed familiar. It took a few more minutes for AJ to realize that the man at the end of the path made him think of the man in the shop last night. But it couldn’t be, could it? Because if it was the man of the shop last night, then my life is over. If it was the man of the shop then he must have seen me, decided that I was the perfect candidate for whatever he had in mind, followed me here and then waited for me to show myself.
How could I have been so stupid! I knew I should have looked for Tanner and his gang before I got out, but I didn’t. And if I did then I would have seen this guy and I could have gotten away, or stayed in hiding!
AJ decided that running, no matter what the possible outcome, was the only way he had a chance of getting away from the man. Besides, he knew this junkyard like the back of his own hand. He might have a chance. AJ turned to flee in the other direction, but stopped in his tracks when he saw six men with guns blocking the way. All six had guns and all the guns were pointing right at him.
He turned back to the dark man at the opposite side of the path. He still hadn’t move. AJ felt the now familiar leaded weakness flow once more in his blood as he realized he was trapped. He watched with defeated eyes as a dark van pulled up behind the dark man, seemingly a signal because then he began to move. As he came closer AJ realized that it really was the man from the shop. His knees began to grow week, but before he could fall to the ground he was grabbed from behind. He had never even realized the six men from the other end had also begun to move in his direction. Now they grabbed him roughly and threw his back against the rusted car wreck.
Pain shot through his body as one man grabbed his right hand and held it against the car, momentarily blocking out all vision as his mind raced to cope with the searing nerves in his hand, unwilling to let him pass out. Somehow AJ sensed that passing out now would be a really bad idea. When his vision cleared he saw that the dark man had almost reached him, and that the van that had followed him closely, had now been joined by a second. Both were blocking him in.
Panic absorbed AJ and suddenly he tried with all his might to break free. He twisted and turned every way, momentarily oblivious to the pain in his hand. But no matter what he tried, there were always yet more hands to grab hold of him and force him into submission. Story of my life, he thought miserably. Finally his strength gave out, and he was pinned to the ground.
One of the six men knelt down in front of him. “Struggling further will only put me in a bad mood. So co-operate now and maybe we won’t put you in the hospital, understood?”
AJ nodded his head, unable to get a sound past the growing knob in his throat.
“Alrighty then. Now, you have something that belongs to us. Something we’d really like to have back. Where is it?”
AJ swallowed, completely at a loss. “I … don’t … know … what … you … mean. I have nothing…”
“Now that’s not giving me co-operation now is it? You took it from us last night and we want it back.”
Last night…? The handbag? “The handbag I … took last … night?”
“Yes!” The man said; the word dipped in sarcasm. “Where is it?”
“I don’t have it. I threw it away…” The man leaned forward. “I didn’t keep it, I only took the purse from it I swear!” AJ started gasping for breath again. All this for a handbag?
“Well the handbag is one thing. But there is something else missing as well. A necklace?”
AJ sighed in relief, that at least he could give the man. But then saw the man cock his gun, and new fear washed through him. All this for a mere necklace? “I … I have the necklace. It’s … um … it’s in my back pocket.”
The two men holding him back suddenly pulled him forward and double him over. That’s when AJ realized that there really was damage to his ribs from the kick he received yesterday as well. The men searched his back pockets, feeling around with no shame at all. AJ, however, burned with embarrassment. Finally the man on his left found the necklace and handed it to the man in front of him. He in turn handed it to the dark man who had come to a halt a few feet away. AJ looked up at him, but was unable to read his expression.
“Now there is the small remaining matter of the missing purse?” The man in front of him again.
“I don’t have it.” AJ whispered.
“You know, and I just thought we were going to get along.” The man said, pressing the muzzle of his gun against AJ’s forehead.
AJ nearly fainted, and felt the bile rise up in his throat. “Please…” he begged. “Please! I really don’t have it anymore! Someone took it from me last night and I…”
His words seem to have frozen the people surrounding him. Silence hung in the air for a few moments. Then the dark man spoke: “Who did?”
AJ looked up at him, immediately attaching himself to the calm way the man had spoken. Maybe … “It was a guy, his name is Tanner. He always…” A breath, “He always takes things from me.” AJ could hear the heartache and defeat in his own voice. Please let this man be merciful…
The man in front of him grabbed him by the shirt. “And where is this Tanner now?”
AJ swallowed hard. He knew now that there was no escape. “I … can’t … tell … you.”
“What?” the man yelled grabbing AJ’s mangled hand and crushing it.
AJ howled in pain.
